seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ezra 4:1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”
4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.[a] 5 They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
a. Ezra 4:4 Or and troubled them as they built
An argument is brewing. The foundation is built.... the celebration is over and everyone went back to their homes.... they'll take a breather and get back to the building... soon.... The commentary is from Bible.org this morning.
The problem of these people (who were the forefathers of the New Testament Samaritans) was syncretism. They blended false religions with the worship of the one true God. They added God to their pantheon, but they never dropped their idols. If they had worked together with the returned exiles, the Lord’s people would have fallen into spiritual compromise, mingling idolatry with the worship of God.
The danger of the appeal of these enemies was that their words were not absolute lies. They were partially true. They did worship God and sacrifice to Him. The problem was, they did not worship God alone! Some of the returned remnant could have accused Zerubbabel and Jeshua of being too hard on these men: “They believe in God, just as we do. Why not make peace with them and let them work together with us?” The answer is, for the same reason that you don’t drink water that is only a little bit polluted. It will poison you!
“Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah” . We are not told specifically how they did this. Maybe they said, “If you rebuild this temple, it’s just going to get torn down again.” Maybe they knew that thousands would flock to Jerusalem to worship at the temple, and said, “We don’t want this kind of traffic in our backyard! Build your temple somewhere else.” If it were our day, they would be down at city hall, protesting the zoning laws or environmental impact!
After discouraging the people, “they frightened them from building”. When you’re discouraged, fear can easily creep in. Many a pastor has wrestled with thoughts like, “What if your critics get you fired? How are you going to make a living and support your family? What if the critics lead away the big givers? How is your church going to make its budget?” Discouragement quickly turns into many fears about the future.
I heard that there is a "remnant" of ancestors of Jacob, here, in the United States. I heard that they have stored up the money and the materials necessary to rebuild God's Temple on the Mount where it once stood. I hear they are ready to move. I also have an Al Jazeera feed that I read every day. It seems that Israel is in quite a turmoil [again or still??] and the Temple mount itself is reported to have a mosque on it now. Wait... I also heard that the mosque is NOT on the Temple mount and there is room right where the Temple needs to be rebuilt.
Yesterday.... on the Al Jazeera feed I read that the president of the US is working with Israel.... and one of the morons compared our current president to Cyrus, king of Persia.... because he's helping the Nation of Israel while concerning himself with the military status of transsexuals.
People... there is a big difference between our current president and king Cyrus of Persia. Our president didn't conquer nations. Cyrus had conquered Babylon..... then... to keep the peace.... he let the people worship as they pleased.... all he wanted was the color on the map.... he wasn't interested in the people and their daily lives. He could care less about the Temple or who built it... he was all about the power and the money..... wait... maybe they are alike.
IMHO... that's the kind of crap God was trying to avoid by keeping the Israelites segregated. The people were using what ever they could to destroy the Israeli desire to rebuild the Temple.
